the brave ones // h.s.

the drive - vi

*another long-ish part (around 2700 words), get ready for the d r a m a and don't hate me :D*

~~~

Eden drives for a couple of hours, her hands lazily drumming on the wheel and songs happily falling from her lips, until the sun drops beneath the horizon and the sky turns a deep shade of navy blue. Thin, wispy clouds shroud most of the stars from view but the night air is warm and the breeze soft as they stop in the parking lot of a motel for the night. A neon red sign out front reads "The Nightmoon Motel" in blazing large letters. It's the only place for twenty miles that doesn't look as though drug deals are happening in any of the rooms.

"You check in, I'll get the bags," Eden instructs chipperly as she exits the front seat. She doesn't wait for Harry to follow her as she makes her way to the back of the car and pops the trunk. Harry steps out and hovers unsurely in the passenger door.

"Eden, wait-"

"Okay, I'll check in and you get the bags," Eden smiles, not noticing the vexation written into his features. She swats his arm playfully as she sashays across the parking lot and into the lobby, leaving the trunk wide open for him.

Harry releases a heavy sigh and trudges to the trunk, languidly pulling their bags out and setting them aside on the gravel lot before he locks the car and waits anxiously for Eden to return.

She dances out of the lobby a moment later, jingling their keys in her hand while her face holds a bright grin.

"Room three-zero-four," she calls across the parking lot. As she gets closer, he can see a devious glint in her brown eyes. "But there's a catch."

"What is it?"

She playfully bumps her hip against his and grabs her bag. "Only one bed."

***

Eden's excitement is at an all-time high. Everything she and Harry have experienced in the past couple weeks has been building up to tomorrow; to Niagara. It's less than three hours away but it may as well be in another universe.

Her grandfather's words haven't vacated her thoughts for more than a few hours since she left home, and as she stands in the small motel bathroom with a comb in one hand and her toothbrush hanging from her teeth in the other, all she can think about is what he told her. About falling in love with others and with life.

But Eden isn't a fool; she knows that happiness is something you have to keep working for. She's just ready to feel it, for once in her life. And Niagara may not hold all the answers, or even any of them, but she's more than willing to give it a try.

Trying is brave, right? Knowing there's a chance of failure or disappointment but still doing the thing regardless. Surely that's an honorable thing.

She spits her toothpaste out and rinses the sink clean before combing her hair so she can braid it for sleep. Only now, examining herself in the mirror, is she beginning to notice how tired she looks; the bags under her eyes aren't getting any smaller, and there's a few pimples beginning to surface on her cheeks. She rubs her face with the heels of her hands, as if she can massage away the stress in one go.

A gentle knock on the door pulls her from her quiet moment. She opens the door to see Harry standing there with his pajamas in one hand and his toothbrush in the other. His eyes seem to hold a quiet kind of sadness, but it may just be the dim lighting casting shadows.

"Can I have a go in here now?" he asks politely. Eden's heart melts a little at how vulnerable and innocent he looks. The exhaustion is written clearly on his face but somehow he maintains his normal, gentle demeanor.